Allowing Resources During the Certification Examination

To the Editor: In their Commentary on the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification examination, Drs Lipner and Lucey¹ addressed the issue of whether the test should be changed to an open-book format or kept in its current closed-book status. They stated that the “ABIM's examinations are purposely designed to test cognitive processing, not factual recall, because cognitive errors result more commonly from inappropriate processing of clinical information than from inadequate knowledge.” If the ABIM wants to test cognitive processing rather than factual recall, they should make their examinations open book.